"Exploring Boston with Charlotte Tucker"

Melissa Wiley is working on another unit study. This time, she is focusing on Chartlotte Tucker (I wrote a short review of these books for Saint Joseph Catholic Homeschool last year). We might have to reread the Charlotte books, too.

"Nanny"

Please pray for my mother-in-law. She was rushed to the hospital yesterday with extremely low oxygen and high blood-sugar levels. She has been diagnosed with a very bad case of pneumonia.
May Mary wrap her mantle around "Nanny" and may God watch over her.

Grooming

I gave our little boy his second haircut today.
"Daddy" took the photos.

Palm Sunday

I have been a little lax about our art projects lately, much to Bernadette's dismay. Yesterday, she decided to correct the situation. Bernadette pulled out Seton's Art 1 for Young Catholics and proceeded to do the project for Palm Sunday. She spent most of the day coloring, cutting and gluing. The result of her hard work can be seen in the picture below. I am very thankful for her diligence, as it will help me to present a Palm Sunday lesson to my children today (better late, than never).

Countdown to Christ's Resurrection

Yesterday, we were given a wonderful Palm Sunday gift after Mass by some new-found friends, the Cruser family. They gave us an egg carton, filled with plastic eggs. Each egg contains a bible verse and something to represent the verse. The beautifully drawn picture on the left was glued to the top of the egg carton. I hope to share some of the contents throughout holy week.

The Cruser girls were so excited to share the gift that their family had made with such love. My children were very touched to receive this carefully made and well thought out gift. I am pleased that we have an excellent means of focusing our intention on the Passion, Death and Resurrection during Holy Week and on Easter Sunday.

Chemo

My dad started his oral chemotherapy yesterday. Please pray that he suffers no serious adverse affects and that he gets well quickly. May God continue to watch over him.

Palm Sunday Crosses

One of my fond childhood memories is of my mom making crosses out of the blessed palms on Palm Sunday. When my husband and I were dating, I made crosses for some of the children after Mass. The first year we were married, I made crosses for some of the children after Mass. The second year we were married, I made a cross for our little baby, one for my husband and one for me. Yesterday, I made 7 crosses (one for each member of our family).

Dear Lord, please help us to carry our crosses without complaint.

Holy Week

I pray that everyone has a blessed holy week!

Adoration

Every First Friday, my children and I spend an hour or more, or sometimes a little less in Adoration. The children surprisingly all look forward to First Fridays. We have an Adoration (EWTN) bag that we take with us each time. It includes religious books, coloring books or pages, and crayons. The children are required to pray for the first few minutes and then they may choose to either read or color. We sing songs, depending on the season (Forty Days and Forty Nights was sung today). Sometimes we pray the Rosary. Today, I read the St. Bridget prayers (found at the beginning of the blue Pieta Prayer Booklet) to them and we all said the Our Fathers and Hail Marys together. While I attended to Patrick, Catherine read King of the Golden City to her brother and sisters. What was Patrick doing? When he wasn't nursing, he was exploring the confessionals and telling me all about them, "Mama..." When he wasn't saying "Mama", he was pointing to the monstrance saying, "Jesus...Jesus...Jesus..." I always leave Adoration feeling so happy that I spent time with Our Lord. Thank you God for providing us with this wonderful opportunity to adore You!